Disclaimer

Mad Hatter's Bookshelf & Book Review routinely receives books from Publishers and Authors for review consideration. When in doubt assume the book comes from a Publisher or if you follow my New Procurement posts I usually describe the source of said book. I still buy a lot of books as well.

This is a sampler list of fantasy novels and short story collections with non-European settings, or secondary fantasy worlds drawn from non-European influences, all by women writers.

Non-European fantasy can be hard to find, so this is meant to be a resource for readers and a way to focus on older or less well-known books by women writers. Hopefully at some point it can be expanded and annotated.

This list was compiled in a couple of days from my bookshelves and from recommendations, so I know there are many more authors and books that should be included. If you know of any fantasy novels that should be added, especially books published in languages other than English, please leave them in the comments. (Remember, the list is focusing on fantasy by women writers; there were some great books suggested but they were left off the list because they were categorized as science fiction.)

The main two things I was trying to avoid (at least for now) were 1) fantasies where European-type characters traveled to non-European settings (for example, Naomi Novik's Temeraire books) and 2) books primarily set in the US, even if they use a fantasy element from another source (like Tananarive Due's books). I did include a book by Judith Berman set in North America, but it has all Native American characters, is set before Europeans arrived, and a book by Sharon Shinn which is set mostly in an alt universe where China colonized North America.

Thanks to Kate Elliott, N.K. Jemisin, Kari Sperring, and Judith Tarr for suggestions and encouragement, and thanks to all the people who made suggestions on Twitter. Thanks to Marie Brennan for many additions from her similar list here. And thanks to the Mad Hatter Review.

At the moment, there are 9697 100 102106 writers on the list.

Lynn Abbey
Daughter of the Bright Moon

Alma Alexander
Secrets of Jin-Shei, Embers of Heaven

Elizabeth Bear
Range of Ghosts

Carol Berg
Transformation
Revelation
Restoration

Judith Berman
Bear Daughter

Beth BernobichFox and Phoenix

Clare Bell
The Jaguar Princess

Hilari Bell
Farsala Trilogy

Aliette de Bodard
Servant of the Underworld, Harbinger of the Storm, Master of the House of Darts

Susan Shwartz
Heirs to Byzantium Trilogy
The Grail Of Hearts
Silk Roads and Shadows
Arabesques I and II, editor
Empire of the Eagle (co-written with Andre Norton)
Imperial Lady: A Fantasy of Han China (co-written with Andre Norton)

Carol Severance
Demon Drums, Storm Caller, Sorcerous Sea

Nisi Shawl
Filter House (story collection)

Josepha Sherman
The Horse of Flame
The Shining Falcon

Sharon Shinn
Gateway
General Winston's Daughter

Kari Sperring
The Grass King's Concubine

Nancy Springer
The White Hart, The Silver Sun, The Sable Moon

Suzanne Fisher Staples
Shiva's Fire

Judith Tarr
Alamut, The Dagger and the Cross
A Wind in Cairo
The Hall of the Mountain King, The Lady of Han-Gilen, A Fall of Princes
Arrows of the Sun, Spear of Heaven, Tides of Darkness
Lord of the Two Lands
Pillar of Fire
King and Goddess
Throne of Isis
The Shepherd Kings
White Mare's Daughter, Lady of Horses, Daughter of Lir
The Golden Horn

Paula Volsky: Gates of TwilightFantasy analogue of India under British rule (main character is "British", so not sure if that disqualifies it under the "European character going to foreign locale" clause)

2) Would Hilari Bell's "Farsala" trilogy count? Its set in what I remember being a much more Middle Eastern/Desert type of land and tho one of the main leads is European-ish (who travels to what amounts to a Bedouin tribe's land) several of the other main characters are not.

I'm so thrilled to see myself on this list! Can I ask that my second book Daughter of the Flames, and the companion novel FrostFire also be included? They're based (loosely!) on Northern India and Tibet :)

Noriko Ogiwara also has more books in the same setting as Dragon Sword and Wind Child (Sorairo Magatama in the original Japanese). The second book is Mirror Sword and Shadow Prince (originally Hakuchou Iden). The third book has not yet been translated in English and the title is Usubeni Tennyo.

I'm hoping it does get translated because I really liked the first book!

How about Megan Whelan Turner's Thief of Attolia series? It's not strictly a fantasy as there isn't much magic (unless you count Gods)but it's got a definite Greek flavor.The ThiefQueen of AttoliaKing of Attolia Conspiracy of Kings

The Jaguar Princess by Clare Bell: jaguar-shapeshifters, set in the Aztec Empire.

How about Ekaterina Sedia's House of Discarded Dreams? Starts in the U.S., but really it's set in a house that sort of drifts away into a world based on African mythologies and urban legends.

K.J. Baker's The Etched City is a little hard to classify - the setting reminds me a bit of the one in Martha Wells' City of Bones - sort of Near / Middle East, with touches of European (the griffin) and weird.

Not sure if Steph Swainton's series that starts with The Year of Our War should be here. It's odd, and has a neverending war with giant bugs and its own even weirder alternate secondary world that one of the characters occasionally escapes to, but also a mostly standard feudal setup.

Sherri Tepper's Land of the True Game books? Sf-ish fantasy set in a world sort of like a mad scientist's version of a chess game for intelligent superpowered lab rats.

These are from the 1930's and 1040's ,but Joan Grant's Winged Pharoah and the duology Eyes of Horus and Lord of the Horizon are set in Ancient Egypt and have magic in them.To make sure you get the right one ,one has to use Joan Marshall Grant some times.I'm pretty certain the first book is still in print. These are three of my all-time favorite books! Mary Cay Martin--marycmartin@hotmail.com

I am going to attempt to read at least one from each author by this time next year...tall order, but I like a challenge! Amazing lst by the way. Been meaning to read something from Octavia Butler for a while, so Wild Seed will be my first one.

KJ Bishop's The Etched City probably counts? I'm not quite sure. Its world and characters are based on an amalgamation of many influences. The lands involved are def. not European though, and one pov character is roughly analogous to Middle Eastern and the other is from a far northern matriarchal society.

There's also another by Noriko Ogiwara: Mirror Sword and Shadow Prince (sequel to Dragon Sword and Wind Child)

Very good list which I keep bookmarked for referenc whenever i'm looking for something different

Just picked up a secondhand book called "castledown" by a Joyce Ballou Gregorian,i've briefly researched it and it the second of a series set in a middle eastern analogue world. It looks good and is quite old too.

Ballou Gregorian's Tredana trilogy is a lot of fun. For something set in Aboriginal Australia, try Patrcia Wrightson's "Song of Wirrun" trilogy. She wrote other books as well, it's years since I read them, but many emphasise pre-European Australian culture.

Starry River of the Sky, the companion to Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin, was recently published. Link: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780316125956

I also have a few recommendations of a couple juvenile / YA books that have more contemporary settings:

White Jade Tiger, by Julie Lawson, is set both in contemporary Victoria, British Columbia (on Canada's west coast), and 150 years earlier during a major gold rush (and a national-railway-building endeavour) in British Columbia. All the main characters are ethnically Chinese. The fantasy elements include (but are not limitted to) the time travel. Link: http://www.julielawson.ca/whitejadetiger.html

Alison Baird is the author of a series of books about a Chinese Canadian girl living in Toronto ends up with a dragon egg. The dragon is definitely Chinese, and many shenanigans and magical adventures ensue, including a trip back to China to visit all the other dragon's relatives. I absolutely loved the first book as a child (The Dragon's Egg), though I haven't read the sequels. Link, under the Kids section: http://www.alisonbaird.net/

Lastly is the Magic or Madness triglogy by Justine Larbalestier. It's set in contemporary Australia and New York City, and its protagonists are a white Australian boy, and African American boy, and a bi-racial aboriginal Australian girl. The magic has some aboriginal elements and some more original elements (or ones that unrecognizable to me at least), but either way it's pretty different from traditional medieval European stuff.

I also have some recommendations for various Celtic-based (non-Aurthurian!) fantasy novels, but though they're definitely not Catholic or Protestant based, they are set in western Europe (or in some cases, Canada) and features caucasian protagonists. So, let me know if you'd like me to submit those as well, or leave them for another list : )

"How about Megan Whelan Turner's Thief of Attolia series? It's not strictly a fantasy as there isn't much magic (unless you count Gods)but it's got a definite Greek flavor.The ThiefQueen of AttoliaKing of Attolia Conspiracy of Kings"~AnonymousThose books are great! And I agree with the Greek influence- a pantheon of gods, city-states (or close enough), olives as a main crop, separate from a mainland. Maybe not a fairies and elves fantasy, but definitely has divine influence as a major part, and the travel/growth/kings/quests/warrior, scholar, & rogue arrangement of many epic fantasy stories.